How are you coping?

Pads is feeling quite rough a lot of the time. He brightened up when I was in at 7pm and earlier when I contacted him via Skype during the day. A nosebleed started out of no-where earlier. You get the feeling he's being held together with drugs, now including three antisickness drugs in concert.
He's far from the only patient struggling on the ward. It's hard to know what to say to the other parents, most of whom have no faith. If anyone reading this is prone to bring out the old chestnut that faith is a pathetic 'crutch', many people we talk to, even the health professionals, all recognise the worth of faith in times like this. What are the options? Stoicism? Hedonism? They're far more vapid than the incredible array of despair-busting factors working in the Christian's favour: for example,

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18)

and:

we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.(Romans 5:3-5)

But it seems far worse than crass to reel these kinds of things off in the middle of a parent's suffering... We keenly feel the need for wisdom in dealing with everyone who asks, rhetorically or otherwise, 'How are you coping?'